Water leaks have been an ongoing and common problem associated with hot water heaters, washing machines, sinks, and various other water-dependent appliances, widespread in homes, townhouses, apartments, mobile homes, and offices. Water leaks have accompanied such water employing or generating appliances for as long as such modern appliances and indoor plumbing have been installed in buildings. Frequently the leaks result a considerable amount of structural damage to the building, as and their contents.
Because such water leaks can develop slowly, frequently they are not discovered until significant damage has already occurred, or upon the substantial accumulation of water has developed.
Consequently, it would be advantageous for building occupants to have an early-warning alarm system for detecting such common and frequently slowly-developing water leaks before costly repairs become necessary.
While leak detection systems have been previously developed, most such systems are not easily installed and monitored and either employ too small sensors which may or may not come into contact with fluid due to their placement under the large footprint.
A few pad sensors are known that have attempted to remedy this problem of lack of detection by providing a larger footprint with a plurality of sensors upon it. However, such conventional pad sensors are not adjustable in overall size due to wiring for sensors and other factors, so they are provided in fixed sizes, which may not be suitable for certain configurations. If they are available in various sizes, it increases the retailer's inventory and also drives up manufacturing costs.
Because of this lack of adjustability, users must seek sensing pads and components which are of a sufficient size to cover the footprint area of concern, and adequately sense a small and slow leak. Even then, such users will frequently find they are unable to find a proper sized sensing pad resulting in a choice between one which is too small to adequately sense the entire footprint area, or too large to properly position in a smaller footprint area underneath the associated appliance.
As a further problem, the prior art sensors utilize local audible alarms and operate on electrical power, which may or may not be available nearby and which can become unplugged or unpowered in the event of a power outage.
As such, there is a long felt need for a leak detection system which employs a sensing component configured to sense the smallest of fluid leaks in the largest possible footprint area of the appliance or plumbing of concern and be able to wirelessly transmit a self powered, alarm signal to the owner's smart phone, tablet or computer. An improved leak detection alarm system is provided by the embodiments set forth below. This new invention utilizes and combines known and new technologies in a unique and novel configuration to overcome the aforementioned problems and accomplish this.